MIDLAND, Texas — For this whole week, some Midland ISD students in grades in K-6th have been taking part in some hands-on learning with the Petroleum Museums' S.T.E.A.M Break: Lovin' Legos Camp. This Break was designed to help parents during both weeks of intercessions.
Sawyer Sandberg is a 2nd grader at Emerson Elementary and he's been enjoying what he's learning. “I’ve made a Cupid and a bow and arrow for the Cupid," Sandberg said.
The camp had themed experiments, engineering challenges and art projects.
Nishka Chennamaneni, a MISD 3rd grader, says this is her 2nd time taking this S.T.E.A.M. camp because she loves science. "They chose the theme as Lego but there’s more arts and crafts and a little bit of science," Chennamaneni said. "I’m looking forward to doing Legos more because I really want to learn make robotic pieces so I'm wanting to explore that."
"We made heart zip lines, we made dancing hearts, we recognized chemical changes and we also played with Legos," says Chennamaneni.
Because it is intercession week, this camp has been a great help for parents, according to the Director of Education and Marketing, Mara Bland, "we really wanted to provide parents with a way to not have to worry about finding a sitter. They can drop their kids off with us. They eat lunch. They come they stay and they pick up at 5 and it’s been great and I think it’s been a great resource for them.
With the daily projects and experiments, her and her team of teachers' goal is to make sure kids can have some educational fun.
“We want to get them excited about science and introduce them to the world of engineering and the whole thought process behind it. We work a lot on critical thinking skills and problems solving skills and that’s more of what we try to focus on for a lot of our camps,” says Bland.